Archbishop of Canterbury: Time for us to challenge the idols of high finance'

Banner reads 'what would Jesus do?'

On the day in which St Paul's Cathedral, and the City of London corporation have decided not go ahead with eviction proceedings against the 'Occupy London Stock Exchange' protesters camped in the churchyard, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, recently returned from the peace gathering at Assisi, has written an article in the Financial Times.

Dr Williams writes: It's sometimes been said in recent years that the Church of England is still used by British society as a sort of stage on which to conduct by proxy the arguments that society itself doesn't know how to handle. It certainly helps to explain the obsessional interest in what the Church has to say about issues of sex and gender. It may help to explain just what has been going on around St Paul's Cathedral in the last couple of weeks.

The protest at St Paul's was seen by an unexpectedly large number of people as the expression of a widespread and deep exasperation with the financial establishment that shows no sign at all of diminishing. There is still a powerful sense around – fair or not – of a whole society paying for the errors and irresponsibility of bankers; of messages not getting through; of impatience with a return to 'business as usual' – represented by still soaring bonuses and little visible change in banking practices.

To read the full text, please go to: www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2236/time-for-us-to-challenge-the-idols-of-high-finance